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American Experience | The Hurricane of '38 : Hurricane of '38 Home Videos

On Wednesday, September 21, 1938, a hurricane hit New England. There was no warning from the National Weather Bureau. In these home movies taken by three families affected by the storm, and compiled by American Experience, you will see the devastation to homes, trees, and the beach. Thousands of livestock were killed. Crops were flattened, farmers wiped out. Two hundred and seventy-five million trees were knocked down, including a third of Vermont's sugar maples, half of New Hampshire's white pines. But all this paled compared to Rhode Island -- 380 people dead, most in the beachfront towns.